'Scoop' that left memory defiled

The ghouls responsible for CBS's one-hour film on Diana, Princess of Wales clearly took great pride in their one and only "scoop", a photo of her dying taken soon after the Paris car crash.

If viewers missed the image of this mother, sister, daughter and inspiration to millions in the last terrible moments of her life the first time it was aired, the thoughtful people at CBS flashed it on screen again. And then again.

The grainy black and white shot of the Princess, slumped in the wreckage of the Mercedes, her eyes closed, was "one of the last pictures taken of her alive", crowed the documentary's presenter, Erin Moriarty.

Then, a few moments later, for anyone who was not paying attention before, 48 Hours Investigates hit us with the image one more time. These "eerie" scenes "have not been shown until now", the reporter reminded her audience.

The Princess was not alone in having her memory defiled by the programme. Her chauffeur that fateful night, Henri Paul, was given similar treatment - perhaps in the interests of balance. He was shown not dying, but dead.

"Tonight, for the first time, you will hear the facts," the audience of more than seven million viewers was told. "What we've learned might just change your mind about one of the most talked-about women of our time."

In fact, apart from the decision to broadcast the photo, CBS broke no new ground at all in its hour-long look at the Princess's love life and her death. This was, in itself, quite an achievement since the programme claimed to have had exclusive access to the French authorities' report into the 1997 tragedy.

Last month it was NBC's turn to offend the living and disturb the memory of the dead by playing extracts from the tapes she recorded for Andrew Morton, her biographer and confessor.

Last year ABC deployed Patricia Cornwell, the millionaire crime writer, to launch her own investigation into the case. Even this sleuth failed to turn up any evidence of foul play.

At least CBS spared its viewers the musings of Paul Burrell, the Princess's valet, who has done several tours of the US talk-show circuit to betray his former employer's secrets.

But the network could still call on a predictable roster of names, many of them authors with books about their time with the Princess to flog, to fill its hour-long show.

"A typical evening at Kensington Palace would be ringing on the doorbell and Diana would come rushing downstairs in excitement, just in a wonderful way, actually," simpered James Hewitt.